Maritime NZ is urging operators to have steps in place to reduce the risks to their workers when machinery is operating.

This comes after an employee of Paddy Bull Limited suffered a serious injury to their arm during a post mussel-harvest clean-up operation while accessing the inside of a mussel tumbler on one of the operator’s (Paddy Bull Limited’s) barges, the Riptide .

The incident occurred on a mussel farm, on the Coromandel in January 2023.

Earlier this month (July, 2024), Paddy Bull Limited was sentenced in the District Court at Auckland under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, for breaching their duties, by exposing a worker to the risk of death or serious injury.

Marine mussel farms work by growing mussels on ropes, which are then hauled onto a barge, stripped off the rope, and cleaned in the mussel tumbler.

The tumbler is an essential piece of purpose built machinery, which needs to be cleaned after each mussel harvest in order to remove any debris that may be left inside.

"The worker removes the debris by hand, and the tumbler should be turned off when it was being cleaned.

"The particular tumbler was not configured to automatically shut off if the door is open," Maritime NZ, Investigation’s Manager, John Maxwell says.

Prior to the incident, the victim noticed a bit of seaweed left inside the tumbler and reached in to grab it. Another worker, who was in the vessel’s cabin, went through the usual process of turning the vessel on, which immediately restored power to the tumbler. The victim’s arm was still inside the tumbler and got caught in the fast turning machinery causing significant injury.

"If the machinery had been configured in a way that stopped the tumbler from turning on while its doors were open, the incident would not have happened," says John Maxwell.

Following the incident, Paddy Bull Limited had the engineering controls modified on the tumbler to prevent an incident like this happening again.

Maritime NZ strongly recommends operators take a proactive approach with managing the risks in their operations, and have the correct procedures in place to protect their employees.

Sentencing notes:

For a breach of s48 under the Health and Safety at Work Act, 2015 for exposing a worker to the risk of death and serious injury, Paddy Bull Limited was fined $180,000 and ordered to pay victim reparation and court costs.

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